The leaves are certainly changing

Unfortunately, it has been a little too long since we last posted. Since the last post, we or some variation of "we" have been to Oregon, Tuscany and Bulgaria, and we also enjoyed some pre-halloween fun in Germany. Here are some of the pics from those adventures...


Here is the gang at the fall festival in Wallau. Pumpkins, pan fried butternut squash with garlic sauce (delicious), washed down with a little pumpkin champagne--highly recommended.

Here is our little tree frog examining seasonal gourds. An ornamental gourd is all about color and shape (so she says).

On the left are Mad and I having some good times at the fest, and below Madeleine is looking for something to nibble on. These days, she is walking about 70% of the time.

Have you seen a more adorable tree-frog??

I will give you one guess where this is? Madeleine about to set flight down a tuscan road
The below pictures were taken in Oregon. Mad taking lessons from a cheetah. She must have been taking notes because she is way too fast for me.

Here is Opa with his hands full.

Big smiles on the Oregon coast.

When in Rome, right??

We hope everyone is doing well!

77 more days!!!

Go DUCKS!!!

Paris Encore

Ok, so maybe I had a little too much wine, but either way how many of you can say you dressed up as Borat and ran along side the Peloton at Le Tour de France? As you may have surmised by now, we recently took what may very well be our last trip (for a while at least) to Paris. We went with the intention of seeing the final stage of "The Tour" but the gods had something else in mind for the Trainor Clan. This is Madeleine and I enjoying a huge breakfast at what turned out to be a great American Style breakfast place. If you are wondering if Sadie and I recognized the irony in traveling to Paris to eat an American breakfast, we did. Unfortunately this place is only one of a handful of American Breakfast places we have seen in two and a half years so the Croque Monsieur had to wait.

The Ladies taking in the sites..

Laid some fowers for Jim and took in the tower.

Here is Mad navigating the apartment (which was about 200 meters from the Notre Dame, awesome find Sadie).

Ad hoc headgear, now that Mad is getting more mobile she needs some protection!! And here is the lot of us in the stairwell of the apartment, which must have been hundreds of years old.

Back on the train and living it up




These pictures are not of this last Paris trip but I needed to post them. (clockwise from the left) Madeleine woke up the other day, crawled out into the living room and sat in this beautiful ray of light coming in. I was fortunate enough to have the camera within reach. This is Madeleine about 60 seconds after waking up one morning, she wakes up and is immedieatly in a good mood!!! Not sure where she gets that from? And finally, post bath and feeling good.

Hope everyone is doing great!! All three of us are psyched to be headed back to the States to see some of you, it has been way too long. See you in a few weeks!! Love to all.

The summer just keeps getting better...

In lieu of celebrating Independence Day the "traditional" way, we decided instead to get irie at the Summerjam Reggae fesitval in Cologne, Germany. We camped with nearly 25,000 other folks who gathered together to listen to some great music and pass the uh, ehm, good vibes to one another. It was a great weekend, the weather held, folks were in great spirits, and as I said we saw tons of great music. If you are looking for some good Reggae to listen to (and haven't done so already) you need to check a band called Jah Cure on the Roots side of the house and The Black Seeds (from New Zealand) who are rootsy/ska blend, both will not dissapoint. There are some of The Black Seeds in the picture above. This picture on the right (with the Swiss flag) was taken by a a group of Swiss guys who provided us a few really hardy laughs. We appreciated the fine aftermarket needlepoint done to this flag so much we just had to have a family portrait taken. Take note of Madeleine's ear protection, she happily wore this cool safety feature whenever the music was too loud.




The picture on the left was taken in the tent right before bedtime and on the right is Madeleine on a mission to eat the camera or destroy Mom's sunglasses, whichever comes first.






















We set up the beach shade in the grass at the back of the seating area and took in the tunes. The heat was on so it was time to take a few layers off.

Later a westling match took place in the tent. Madeleine turned the tables on Mommy with the dreaded "raspberries to the stomach" routine!

Who doesn't love the having the upper hand?

One love,

peace ,

and happiness!

Jah lives..

Here are some pics of my recent trip to the UK. Took in the British Museum, the Rosetta Stone, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, and the Trinity School at Cambridge, it was graduation day. Very nice to drink a beer with hops in it!.

Happy Father's Day!!

Wow, what a great first Father's Day this was!! Sadie and Madeleine took me to Brugge, Belgium where we celebrated in style.

Brugge is an amazing place and a "must visit" if you are ever in Belgium. The city is roughly 1 square mile of pure European history dating back to around 1120.

(Brugge's famous 13th-century Belfry, housing a municipal Carillon comprising 47 bells. The city still employs a full-time bell ringer, Aimé Lombaért, who puts on regular free concerts.)

Canals, cobble stone streets, horse drawn carriages, homes older than the discovery of North America, fries and Mayo (not a big hit with us), Mussels and fries (a big hit with us) and the beer, wow the beer! Monks used by God as a vessel unto which to brew these fine concoctions, what more can I say, the result will make a believer out of you.

A few "typical" sites

We spent our days in walking around in awe of how beautiful a city Brugge is (the city itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site). The city is a museum, amazing!

(OK, one small break)

Madeleine was on her best behavior, hamming it up for whoever would look at her (which is usually most folks). She is crawling now, pulling herself up to standing and saying Dada (an extra father's day bonus for me :))

I am a lucky man! Thanks Sadie and Madeleine I had an unbelievable first Father's day. Love ya!!

No, not Brugge, but a great time nonetheless. Me and the big sis on Miami beach last week. Good times spent saucer-eyed at all sorts of uber-expensive Italian cars and huge bar tabs.

The Moonlight sonata

Ah, the home of Beethoven, Bonn, Germany. The gang ventured up to Bonn via the great trains of Germany, and we had a great time soaking up both culture and beer (we found a great Irish pub, see below). Here are Madeleine and Sadie in front of the home of the great master along with a picture of Maddy and I in front of the very room Beethoven was born! As you can see Madeleine and Sadie were their usual jovial selves as we took in the sights.....but all this culture and beer (or milk in this case) makes a baby girl tired, so now it is nap time. Fun times had by all!!

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet..

It's about time!!! The sun has been shining here in Germany and we have been enjoying it to the fullest. Last weekend, we took a nice long walk on the Main river and later enjoyed some time in

the playground, it was great. When the sun finally appeared it felt like it had been a year since the last time we saw it. Wait, it had been a year!!

Anyway, it's a welcome change. Madeleine has been making ventures into "real" food and currently she is working on crawling. It's funny, she has been moving her arms and legs in a crawl-like motion for a long time (as if she was trying to crawl) but she just couldn't put it all together, this is quckly changing....looks like she might crawl any day now.

Train trip to Trier

Yesterday we took a train ride to Trier, by the Luxembourg border. Trier was founded by Romans in 24 BC and is the oldest city in Germany. There are still quite a few Roman ruins there, such as the Porta Nigra:

Overall, a very cool city. We walked around and took part of a guided tour, had some lunch and did a bit of shopping. Here we are on the train on the way out:

The train took us about 1 hour into the Rheingau, with views on the river, castles, and vineyards, before a transfer took us down the Mosel River for another piece. It was a beautiful ride, even though most of the trees are still bare.

And here is a rare picture of Madeleine in a tearful mood (most likely because it is bedtime and she wants to stay up and play with us!):